Helping Environmental Health Departments Adopt Informatics

In January 2016, a group of 16 experts representing software technology firms, local and state environmental health (EH) departments, and federal agencies convened to discuss the EH field’s needs to successfully adopt informatics.

The meeting revolved around the key questions:

What EH problem(s) are we trying to solve?,

What knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) do EH departments need to solve the problem(s)?, and

What is a professional association’s, in this case NEHA’s, role in solving the problem?

By identifying barriers and models for adopting informatics in EH, we could take a step toward better connecting and informing environmental public health programs and initiatives.

The results from the forum, along with identified next steps, were presented through a poster presentation at NACCHO’s Public Health Informatics Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Editor's Note: The opinions expressed here are those of the author. They do not reflect NEHA policy, endorsement, or action, and NEHA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.